Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi (4 September 1926-7 July 2006) was President of Lebanon from 24 November 1989 to 23 November 1998, succeeding Rene Moawad and preceding Emile Lahoud.

Biography
Elias Hrawi was born on 4 September 1926 in Zahle, Lebanon to a family of Lebanese Maronites. He became a successful agricultural businessman, and when the Lebanese Civil War destroyed his agricultural business, he moved on to selling oil. In 1972, he was elected to the National Assembly and entered politics, and Hrawi was elected President of Lebanon on 24 November 1989. He ended the civil war with the 1990 Taif Agreement in Saudi Arabia, and he forced unrecognized Prime Minister Michel Aoun to resign from his post, beginning the reconstruction of Lebanon. Hrawi was faced with some popular issues: Syria still occupied the country, the Muslim and Maronite militias had been disarmed but not the Hezbollah militant group, and he extended term limits, extending his term by three years. He left office in 1998, and he died in the American University Hospital in Beirut at the age of 79 in 2006.